The present invention relates to musical instruments. More specifically, the invention relates to utilizing switches on the back of the neck of a musical instrument for producing sounds.
There are many musical instruments that allow the musician to play multiple parts of songs simultaneously. For example, a musician is able to play both the melody and accompanying chords on the piano at the same time. As another example, an organist can play melodies and chords with the hands, and the bass part with the feet. The music produced by these musical instruments is often so full that no other musical accompaniment is necessary.
There are many other musical instruments that by the very nature of the way they are traditionally played makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a musician to play multiple individual parts of a musical piece. For example, stringed instruments such as the guitar generally require both hands to play a musical note. The fingers of one hand hold one or more strings against the fingerboard, while the other hand picks or strums the strings. Thus, musicians of traditional guitars are limited with regard to the number of notes or parts of songs that can be played individually.
There have been attempts to increase the flexibility of traditional stringed instruments by placing switches on the fingerboard of the instrument. When the musician depresses a string to contact the fingerboard, a switch is activated that may produce tones to accompany the music generated by the stringed instrument. Although such techniques may increase the tonal range of the instrument, the musician is still limited to playing a single part of the musical score. In other words, the range of notes produced by the stringed instrument may be increased, but the musician is still limited with regard to the number of individual parts of a song that may be played simultaneously.
Accordingly, there is a need for innovative methods and apparatuses for modifying stringed instruments so that the musician is able to play multiple parts of a musical piece. It would be desirable for these techniques to be inexpensive and non-damaging to the musical instruments so musicians would be able to apply these techniques to the instruments of their choice.